My "best of the year" picks: 2007

My picks follow, in no particular order. Here is some background information, & how I pick the stories. More "best of 2007" lists at the bottom.

1. Mike Resnick's "Merry Bunta!"; download; short story; Subterranean magazine, Fall 2007; non-genre, humor: Lucifer falls in love, & goes to great lengths win his lady love.
2. Mike Resnick's "The Lost Continent of Moo"; download; short story; Subterranean magazine, Spring 2007; non-genre, humor: Lucifer wants to be recognized as god by a tribe, & must gives tests to prove eligibility!
3. Ted Chiang's "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate"; download as text, as MP3; novelette; as a short book by Subterranean Press, July 2007; fantasy: Four time travel folktales - told in the style of (I think) Arabian Nights.
   
4. Katherine Maclaine's "All Kinds of Reasons"; download; short story; Strange Horizons, 3 September 2007; science fiction: A man is emotionally torn after choosing his best baby from among the many embryos.
   
5. Donna Glee Williams' "Limits"; download; short story; Strange Horizons, 23 July 2007; perhaps fantasy: A beautifully told motivational story about discovering the limits of your ability without reference to social expectations.
6. Brian Stableford's "The Trial"; short story; Asimov's Science Fiction, July 2007; science fiction: Early field trials of a drug are too successful!
7. Elizabeth Bear's "Tideline"; short story; Asimov's Science Fiction, June 2007; science fiction: A sentimental robot teaches life skills to an urchin.
8. Harry Turtledove's "News from the Front"; short story; Asimov's Science Fiction, June 2007; non-genre: Conflict between Roosevelt administration & US media during the first 6 months of US/Japan engagement during World War II.
9. Charles de Lint's "Make a Joyful Noise"; download; short story; Subterranean, Summer 2007; fantasy: Very good motivational story, presented as a fantasy. An old woman finally prepares to outgrow the demons of her past.
10. Tobias Wolff's "A Mature Student"; Playboy, September 2007; non-genre: Outstanding story about the psychology & environment that create torturing security men - of the kind that were in news some time back in US military's torture camps in Iraq & Afghanistan.
11. Bart Meehan's "Heaven, As Built By Tackleby Ames"; download; AntipodeanSF, #114 (November/December 2007); science fiction, humor: Be prepared for unpleasant consequences if you don't keep the employees - engaged in building the machine to hold your uploaded consciousness - happy!
12. Kij Johnson's "The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change" (A); download; Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (Ed)'s "Coyote Road, Trickster Tales", July 2007: What if animals could speak? Very moving accounts of man/dog relations - told from the perspective of dogs.
13. Greg Egan's "Glory" (A); download; Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan (Eds)' "The New Space Opera", HarperCollins/Eos, 2007; science fiction: Two humans of far future have traveled to an alien world in a far away star system to make first contact. Extremely interesting interstellar travel arrangements.
14. Connie Willis' "All Seated on the Ground"; download; Asimov's, December 2007; humor: How to convince the alien visitors that humans are worth talking to?
15. [flash fiction] Julie Bailue's "Egg Sharing"; download; AntiSF, #110 (July/August 2007); science fiction: Near future implications of sperm or egg donation.
16. [flash fiction] Gareth Owens' "A New Note For Nat"; download; Nature, 30 August 2007; science fiction: What if adults couldn't hear kids' music?
17. [novelette] James P Hogan's "Murphy's War"; download link1, link2; Jim Baen's Universe, #8 (August 2007); humor: When computer hackers rendered a nuclear war harmless!
18. [ss] Sruthi Thekkiam's "Friday Afternoons on Bus 51"; download; Blackbird, Fall 2007; non-genre: A very Indian love story!
    

Related.

1. My "best of the year" 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010 picks.
2. Gardner Dozois (Ed)'s "The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection": Stories first published during 2007.
3. David Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer (Ed)'s "Year's Best SF 13": Stories first published during 2007.
4. Hugo Awards 2008 (fiction first published during 2007): short stories, novelettes, novellas.
5. Nebula Awards 2007 (fiction first published in US during 2007): short stories, novelettes, novellas.
6. BSFA Awards 2007 - short fiction: Fiction first published in UK during 2007.
7. Locus Awards 2008 - short fiction: fiction first published during 2007.
   
8. "Best of" lists.